January 2019 Minutes
Londonthorpe & Harrowby Without Parish Council
Clerks Notes of the Parish Council Meeting held 9th January 2019 at Belmont School 7.00pm
Public Open Session; there were no parishioners present.
Councillors present were; J Anderson, G Parnham, A Gregory, R Keeler, Cllr G Chivers, P Bakker, R Wright, P Bavin and Y Martin(9 Members were present.). Cllr P Bakker the Chairperson took the Chair. P Armstrong the Clerk took the notes.
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Apologies were received from Cllr N Craft, W Charley, M Radley plus LCC Cllr A Stokes and LCC Cllr Linda Wootten.
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Declarations of Interest; None.
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Clerks Notes of the 14th November 2018 meeting were accepted as a true record and became the minutes. Proposed by J Anderson, seconded A Gregory, all members were in agreement.
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Clerks Report on Progress. The Clerk stated all matters except the question of ownership of the Chestnut trees on Belton Lane were to be dealt with under the appropriate agenda items.
It was noted that the work has now been done to fell the affected tree by a Tree Surgeon; it is not known who paid.
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Financial Statement No.5.
The Clerk/RFO went through the financial report in fine detail as is usual explaining all the payments etc. The Community Cleaners and Clerks salaries for the last two months May & June totalling £1418.32 was paid out. HMRC were paid £343.40 in relation to these salaries. £260 to WACS for repairs to fences at H&H plus fitting the Picnic Bench at Bridge End Grove. Cheques for £156.80 were paid to LCC for the school room hire for the year, £7.50 to LALC for magazines and £474 for the new Picnic Bench.
A cheque of £189.20 was issued for the Trees used at the Hills and Hollows, three of which are in the Memorial Area. Petty Cash expenditure owed to the Clerk during the last two months amounted to £78.03 this included Office £11.98, H&H £12.36 and £53.69 for tools for the Working Parties and these are also used at the H&H.
Total expenditure during this two months being £2925.05 a total of £123.58 of VAT is reclaimable. Income was £227.74, £7.74 interest from HSBC and £220 in donations for the trees at the Memorial Area.
Known expenditure due for payment before the next meeting are; Community Cleaner’s Salary, Clerks
Salary, Repairs, Road Safety, New Play Equipment at Fifth Ave, Training and the Annual Office Expenses. The Clerk informed the meeting that all budget headings were as to be expected for this time of year. Except we have an under spend on grass cutting due to the last summers growing conditions.
Agreement to accept the Financial Statement No 5 and all the options suggested plus the normal expected payments was proposed by R Wright seconded by R Keeler this was agreed unanimously.
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PLANNING APPLICATIONS
none
No new applications were received during the last two months.
Nothing further has been heard about the Harrowby Hill development; the Appeal was lodged on the 8th August and no date or appointed Inspector is known.
S17/1378 Harrowby Lane Travellers Site the Enforcement Officer has not replied about our complaint of the misuse of the site against the conditions of the agreed plan. One Static is now on site but not positioned as per agreed plan.
Spitalgate Heath; nothing new received. The Clerk did attend the Appeal Meeting re the SRLR and reported back to the members. No named mention was made of the “Garden Village” only as a housing development. The name “Hampton Brook” was though used for the Outlet Village.
The scoping notes re the Anglia Water pipeline raised a couple of queries from members when sent out but when the Clerk contacted other neighbouring PC’s they had no qualms about where it passed through their areas. It appears that the route from Lincoln to Harrowby keeps away from developed areas and roads as much as possible. The application will come up again when planning application is received.
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Leisure & Outdoor Committee.
All Areas covered by this Committee are as usual reported in this item.
The committee have not met since the last meeting so no report due. They will be meeting prior to the next full council meeting to deal with the “Grass Cutting” quotes etc.
a. Playground Safety: The repair work passed to WACS for completion was done. The ROSPA inspection completed in November has been chased up and the Clerk informed members that there was nothing of a dangerous nature needing immediate attention. As he had only received it that afternoon and it comes to approximately 50 pages he had not printed it out. It would be passed to the committee to deal with at their next meeting. It was noted that some of the comments related to jobs already undertaken by WACS.
b. Hills & Hollows; A further small Working Party worked onsite to complete a few further tasks early in December. The Clerk organised for the planting of the two trees in the Memorial Area to take place, these were done on separate occasions. Donations of £140 were received. Both of these trees were Bird Cherry a further tree a Silver Birch was also planted. This procured a further donation from a neighbour who wished to be involved in some way but the tree was not dedicated to anyone in particular. This raised a further donation of £80 towards the H&H funds. The January Working Party has been cancelled for here and organised for Londonthorpe Woods.
c. New Play Equipment “Fifth Avenue”; the new equipment is due to be with AMG the week beginning 21st Jan, they will fit ASAP. The equipment from “Kompan” is made up of climbing/exercise elements.
d. Grass Cutting; The clerk stated that he had sent out tender forms to five companies including SKDC and our current contractor R Webster. The new three year deal will start in March.
As stated above L&O Committee will oversee.
e. Woodland Trust Working Party; We are still attracting new members which are allowing more work to be done. We have a record 16 members signed up with expectation more this month. New skills are to be learnt this month as we are going to attempt to build Hazel Hurdles from of prunings. These will be used to make safe the area around the ditch we will be clearing.
f. Bridge End Grove; the new Picnic Bench looks a very inviting place to sit. The fences and railings have all been repaired where necessary. A complaint has been received about street light being out and neither LCC or SKDC would claim responsibility. The clerk checked and found it was a SKDC light and they are now to deal with it. He made the suggestion that those dealing with such things at SKDC should know the difference between the lights.
g. The Belfry; it was reported that someone was exercising their dog there , Cllr J Anderson said he would pursue this matter
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Highways Notes;
Chatsworth Avenue; we are still waiting for the next of a series of meeting with all interested parties to be called by SKDC.
Work has been done to clear the gulleys on Chatsworth. Some agreements appear to have been made to link the water into a drain underground instead of it running over the road surface.
It appears that the landowner been located and his working with the authorities. The road and the area have been worked on by the SKDC Big Clean team.
Harrowby Hill Flooding; work has been done to fill the great big Potholes and clean the footpath but it is nearly as bad again already as water continues to flow at a great rate from the field. AW has stated that there are definitely no leaks from the reservoir but they are still checking the input pipes etc.
Londonthorpe Lane; the question was raised, are there blocked drains along this stretch of highway as water cascades all the way down from by the factory units on Alma Park like a river whenever it rains.
Potholes; a few potholes repairs have been completed around the parish but once again the workman ship is of a poor quality. There are far more though that require doing not just in the parish but in and around where our parishioners travel.
Speedwatch; figures for when the SID was Harrowby Lane recently was shown to members. These figures show that the average speeds depending on the time of day are mainly between 25 and 35mph, on two occasions vehicles passed at a speed greater that 60mph.
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Tom Childs Award; The award has still not been presented due to the families circumstances. Cllr G Chivers will make contact with them, followed by the Clerk.
A suggestion had been made to have the award combined as a 2018/19 one, but on a proposal by G Chivers seconded by P Bakker it was agreed to go ahead as normal. Cllr W Charley to be contacted on his return to work to find a suitable date.
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Newsletter; the copy needs to be readied for the printers by the second week of February, items to be included and the councillors responsible are listed below.
As there are Elections due in May a section will be dedicated to that (PA), L&O Committee (RK),Planning (GP), Flooding etc (NC & PA), Front Page (PBk),100th Anniversary WW1(JA &PA), H&H report (PA), Check Calendar (YM), Adverts (PBk), Woodland Trust (RK, PBk &PA), Best Kept Gardens (GP, PBk & PA), Tom Childs Award (PA) Open Evening (PA) and new councillor items from (AG, RK & RW). Proof reading of some items would be undertaken by (YM)
It was agreed the committee would meet on the 5th Feb to finalise items and proof read.
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Elections; members were given a link to all the information required for their standing in the next election of councillors, polling day is Thursday 2nd May.
The date of our first meeting after that is due to be the 8th May. The councillors were informed by the Clerk that as they don’t officially take office until the Monday 6th they could not be given the statutory 3 days notice. With this in mind it was agreed that we would change the date to the 15th May with a 7.30pm start as both the Clerk and Cllr G Parnham were already booked in for another meeting earlier that evening.
This will be the Annual Parish Council Meeting.
The Clerk stated that should an election be needed the cost would be in the region of £4000; this would be met from our projects fund if there is a shortfall elsewhere in budget.
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Correspondence; Invite from Western Power to attend a stakeholder workshop, J Anderson showed an interest in attending. The training calendar from LALC was received, members agreed this may be something for after the elections. All other relevant correspondence has been passed on as it arrived.
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Items Not covered Under Other Agenda Headings; None.
Meeting closed 8.35pm.
Diary Dates are as per these minutes and the Autumn Newsletter.
Next meeting; 13th March 2019. Preceded by the Annual Parish Meeting @ 7.00pm